Review: Why George Thoroood's show at Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall as so appropriate

Why is it not surprising that St. Patrick’s Day was a great occasion for a George Thorogood concert?

A holiday most celebrated by inebriated excess seems perfect for a band whose biggest hits proclaim “I Drink Alone” and order up “One Burboun, One Scotch, One Beer."

And that was the case Tuesday, when Thorogood took the stage at Miller Symphony Hall, before as rowdy a crowd as the venerable Allentown venue has seen since its early days in vaudeville.

But that rowdiness was appropriate, as Thorogood and his four-man band rocked through a 14-song set that stretched 95 minutes. The 65-year-old blues rocker, who is observing 40 years of performing, seemed looser and to be having more fun than in any of his other area appearances in recent years.

It should have been a sign of what was to come when Thorogood opened with a proclamation of “How sweet it is!” then a rollicking “Rock Party.” Before the end of the song, he had walked across the front of the stage and thrown off his dark shades.

George Thorogood performs Tuesday, March 17, 2016 at Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall. (BRIAN HINELINE / SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

“And away we go!” Thorogood said, launching into his hit “Who Do You Love,” singing through clenched teeth and slithering along on the Bo Diddley beat. He even slipped in the first of several Queen City references, changing one verse to say, “Allentown can’t be beat.”

“I’m gonna do my best to get arrested tonight,” he told the crowd before a driving “The Fixer.“ “Somebody gonna go to jail for rock ‘n’ roll, might as well be me!”

It was, of course, a bit of blarney, but that good-natured approach quickly won over the crowd of 900 or so. A playful cover of The Strangeloves’ “Night Time” got them clapping along, and when he sang “I Drink Alone,” with its sax solo, they were getting looser and rowdier by the song.

BRIAN HINELINE/Special to The Morning Call

George Thorogood at Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall

George Thorogood at Allentown's Miller Symphony Hall (BRIAN HINELINE/Special to The Morning Call)

A ramshackle “House Rent Blues” – on which he changed a verse to say he was going “down to the Tuesday night party at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania – the world’s best-kept secret” – bled right into “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” and got Thorogood his first of three standing ovations.

“Alright, let’s start the show,” Thorogood said, jokingly, and continued the night’s drinking theme with a rap about not drinking and driving that ended with him saying, “sometimes I’m so full of sh-t, even I can’t stand it.”

He said he wanted to “do something topical,” and played “If You Don’t Start Drinking (I’m Gonna Leave),” on which he genuinely seemed to be having fun, and drank a toast to Allentown afterward, telling a wag in the crowd, “Don’t rush me, fella. It took 40 years to get up here. I’m gonna enjoy every second of it.”

His guitar playing seemed to get better as the concert went along. On “Get a Haircut,” he played a mean slide, even as he wandered off stage into the box seats to play. He also played slide – a two-minute, edge-of-the-stage solo – on “Gear Jammer.”

And he really cooked on “Move It On Over,” on which a half-dozen people took to the aisles to dance an the crowd gave him a second standing ovation. The crowd clapped along to “Tail Dragger” – which he sang without a guitar.

And by the time he closed the main set with his signature song, “Bad to the Bone,” the whole crowd was on its feet. “How bad do you want it?” Thorogood asked, and after a rowdy cheer said, “Then you got it.”

The song stretched to eight minutes with a stinging sax solo and Thorogood playing distorted slide at the front of the stage. By then, the crowd had rushed the stage and clogged the aisles.

He came back for an encore, telling the crowd that management had waived the curfew, and played an eight-minute, rocking and loose “Madison Blues” – most of it with the lights up.

Before leaving the stage, Thorogood drank another shot to toast the crowd. Why wasn’t that surprising?